


Replacement

by emmeryn



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Gen, Violence, ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-15
Updated: 2013-01-15
Packaged: 2017-11-25 16:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/640619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmeryn/pseuds/emmeryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'You're weak. Boring. Dull. You're dead. You're dead, and I'm alive, but she's still replacing me with you.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Replacement

**Author's Note:**

> tw: burning, choking

The book that had been thrown at him lay somewhere off to the side, and Ryouta was smiling down at him with a horrid, twisted grimace. 'Sorry, I didn't see you there. Then again you don't exactly have much of a presence to begin with.' He laughed, slowly, and stared down at Nageki with burnt red eyes. The other didn't respond, just searched the rock dove's face for a hint as to what his motive was. His legs sat on either side of Nageki's body, trapping him.

Ryouta drew a wing out towards Nageki's neck and curled his feathers, digging in and pushing the other bird's head backward. 'What does she see in you?' His grip became tighter, 'What makes you so much better than me?' Both wings were now around the mourning dove's neck, pressing in and squeezing, cutting off the air. The edges of his vision became dark, and Nageki let out a cracked, choking sound and Ryouta pulled away. 'No, no I suppose I can't kill you. You can't kill what's already dead.' Nageki's vision was blurred from the lack of oxygen, and he couldn't make out what it was that his assailant, his friend, drew from behind him and then held in his wing. The other leaned in close and whispered softly, almost terrifyingly. 'But that doesn't mean I can't hurt you.'

He was holding a box of matches.

Nageki panicked instantly and tried to free himself, flailing, but Ryouta's legs stayed locked firmly in place. 'Shhhh, calm down.' His voice held no malice, no cruel intent but his eyes reminded the small bird of fire, of burning and his feathers were like ashes. 'Relax.' He opened the box and took out a match, Nageki watching with wide eyes. He'd burned once before; he'd died, and he'd been released. But you can't kill what's already dead, and the spark of flame before him held no promises of escape, just pain. And the pain was there when Ryouta brought the match to Nageki's shoulder and watched intently as it singed the feathers there, then pushed passed the plumage to the skin and he listened to the screams that broke the silence of the small library.

Burning.

Burning.

Burning.

Nageki was burning.

And he couldn't make it stop.

Matches moved over his body, and every time Ryouta drew a fresh one from the box there were more burns than before, and he could only stare at the ceiling as feathers drifted to the floor and as skin became marked. The sun was setting outside the window, and the clouds were burning too.

Nageki flinched at the sound of a voice other than his own quiet cries, and tilted his head forward to look at Ryouta. 'Looks like we're all out of matches.' He sighed, and tipped the box upside down to emphasize. The box was discarded on the floor and Nageki was being stared at again.

The other dove leaned over him, red eyes closed, and breathed in and out slowly. When his eyelids opened again, his gaze was unreadable.

'You're weak. Boring. Dull. You're dead. You're dead, and I'm alive, but she's still replacing me with you.' His whole body was tensed, and Nageki couldn't tell if he was going to cry or choke him again, or both. 'Am I really so worthless? I can be replaced by somebirdie who can't even leave the library, I can suddenly become meaningless and forgotten, and you can become special to her when I know everything about her, and I love everything about her. And I thought she might have felt the same for me, but I was wrong. And it's your fault.'

He stood up and kicked the bird still on his back on the floor. It was an apathetic, flimsy kick. And then he stood there, and Nageki laid there, and the sky that had been burning was becoming darker, like ashes.

And then he kicked the bird on the floor again.

And again, and again only this time with force and the bird crumpled in on himself and tried to move across the floor, tried to move away but the bird looming above him wouldn't let him and each time the foot connected with his side a claw dug into him and opened up the fresh burn wounds.

Ryouta's kicks slowed down. He scraped against Nageki's skin, drawing it out and causing the dove to curl even smaller, whimpering against his burnt feathers.

The kicking ceased, and Nageki lay completely still. 

He heard Ryouta's footsteps reaching the door to the library and stopping, pausing, before, 'It's all your fault.'

And the door closed behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> (EDIT: pseud was previously "oyo"!)


End file.
